Methodology
The FundaÈ›ia Regală Margareta a României (FRMR) aims to enhance the centers by integrating technology into their daily programs. Most importantly, the FRMR affirms that technology will aid the students in their academic pursuits. Furthermore, incorporating technology into the centers will also appeal to many prospective sponsors, who are looking for technologically advanced programs to support and are essential for the continued success of the Generations’ Centres. We had three main goals for the redesign of the center: to improve student performance, to attract additional sponsors, and to be replicable in other centers. The data we collected in the student and volunteer surveys provided ample information to confirm our broad ideas about what elements of technology would carry the greatest effect with respect to cost in this context. These broad ideas were then narrowed down to specific products and organized into a sample budget; an online volunteer handbook was created to ensure the continuity of quality instruction, as well as facilitate the transfer of knowledge among centers; and promotional videos, targeting new volunteers and sponsors, showcase the impact these products can have on the center.
Contextualization of the Problem
In order to achieve any of the goals set out for this project, we began by contextualizing the problem. While our background research provided insight on the causes of educational problems and issues faced by elderly volunteers, it would be impossible to truly help without first understanding how our specific stakeholders are impacted. We started by organizing our ideas and formulating a plan from the project definition, so our team could create a goal statement, a list of general project objectives to achieve that goal, and questions for each objective to guide our research. We put all of this information into a table which can be viewed below. To begin working toward our goals as a team, we looked at which of the questions from the table could be answered through background research and which could not. We then met remotely with FRMR staff, which provided us with answers to questions that we were unable to obtain from background research.
The surveys list the questions that the stakeholders were asked, including questions to gauge how familiar the students and volunteers are with technology, and what they believe can be improved within the center. Using the data collected from these surveys, we could fine-tune our deliverables to meet their expressed wants and needs.
